"Ha, as long as nothing jumps out to attack me, there's nothing to be afraid of. I've seen far more of the world than you have."
Feeling as though she'd been underestimated, Shijō Maki showed a displeased expression. While speaking she also gripped the small refrigerator door, then pulled it open with force.
A frozen man's face instantly appeared before her eyes.
"…"
In that instant, Takumi could feel the girl beside him go completely tense, her entire body practically locked stiff.
And as the refrigerator door fully opened, a man curled up inside, completely frozen through, was revealed before the two of them.
Even though he had been dead for a long time, that icebound visage, twisted with terror and despair, still seemed to proclaim the fear this man had felt deep in his heart as he had hidden himself here in his final moments.
Takumi lowered his head to look inside the refrigerator. Regrettably, he found no such things as [a note beside the corpse] or [words carved before death], those clue files so common in escape games. One could only say that games are always games; in reality, finding clues is not so easy.
"Wearing only a thin vest and shorts all over his body—perhaps he encountered something while sleeping or resting, and in panic chose to hide inside the refrigerator?"
Feeling the chill seeping from within, Takumi tried to analyze the victim's final encounter and course of action, but for the moment he could not draw out any valuable clue.
"Ha… Th-this kind of thing, isn't it obvious at a glance… huff… nothing more than that. Wait, you—something's off with you, isn't it? Why can you just calmly analyze after seeing a corpse like this? Are you really a novelist?"
As for Maki, who had been badly startled, only now did she begin to recover. First she forced out a few words to defend her pride, then immediately frowned and looked at Takumi.
"Well, that's probably because in the past, when researching, I looked at a lot of unpleasant things and built up immunity. Like those so-called most disturbing things in the world…"
Takumi was thinking of a proper explanation, but before he had spoken more than a couple of lines, footsteps from behind interrupted him.
Shinomiya Kaguya had, without them noticing, silently stepped into the kitchen. Only once she drew close did she deliberately let her steps sound so that they would realize her presence.
She did not speak. Her gaze simply swept over Takumi and Maki, the half-open refrigerator door behind them, and the corpse completely frozen inside. Then she gestured for silence and showed them her phone.
[There's a situation outside. Don't make a sound. Come.]
After displaying the brief message, Kaguya's gaze lingered for a moment at the slight dampness at the corner of Maki's eye, not yet wiped away from her fright, before she turned and took the lead toward outside.
At this moment the wall clock had already been taken down by Kaguya, now held in her hand, and neither Takumi nor Maki hesitated to follow along. All three tried their utmost to remain silent, making sure their movements were noiseless.
They passed through the living room, entering the corridor.
[Knock, knock, knock—]
Before they even reached the front door, Takumi already heard a knocking sound—neither too loud nor too soft—accompanied by a voice speaking along with the knocks.
[Takumi, hey Takumi, you're in there, right?]
[Why aren't you saying anything? It's me, Yamamoto Hiroshi.]
[Everyone's outside, we're talking about what to do. Why did you hole yourself up in there, and those two girls with you too, what are you all doing? Hey, hey, don't stay silent, say something.]
It was the voice of that fat manager they had heard not long ago.
Completely without the slightest trace of abnormality, that voice, full of puzzlement, sounded along with the knocking at the door. At the same time, one could faintly hear the voices of that Black guy and that blonde girl—it was the three of them, all speaking outside the door.
Together with the steady knocking, the sounds drifted into the ears of the three inside the room.
[Knock, knock, knock—]
[Takumi, why aren't you saying anything?]
The voices outside continued to sound.
As if the silence from before had been nothing but an illusion, as if the stillness in the corridor after those footsteps had never existed.
[Knock, knock, knock—]
The knocking continued.
And the three standing inside the room, at this moment, all remained silent.
What was going on?
After everything outside had fallen silent, although all three had said they were uncertain of the situation, in fact both Takumi and Kaguya and Maki had already prepared themselves for the possibility that everyone in the corridor was dead. Especially after Takumi and Maki had seen the frozen corpse in the refrigerator, they were even more convinced of this idea.
But now, their voices had returned.
Why appear at this moment?
They had been silent for so long before, without the slightest movement. Could it be that everything was just their misunderstanding? Could it be that no fatal, bizarre event had occurred, and that those footsteps had merely cut off the voices of the people outside, preventing them from perceiving their sounds?
[Alright, alright, nothing's been happening outside at all, don't hide away anymore.]
[Yeah, we've been knocking at your door for ages. From the moment you went in, we've been calling out to you. Why wouldn't you answer?]
[Suddenly hiding for no reason, what's going on with you? Clearly nothing has happened.]
The three voices outside kept on sounding.
Along with that knocking, they continued to echo on.
[Knock, knock, knock—]
As if the rhythm would never change, the steady knocking went on.
Should they respond to these people?
No, they couldn't act rashly—the suspicious points were far too many.
The thought had just arisen when Takumi immediately rejected it.
If outside really was safe, then that White brute and Tanaka should not have remained motionless. At the very least, Tanaka, who had first put himself forward as a leader, should not have stayed silent. He should have been among these people.
And yet only the three who had stayed in the corridor from the start were the ones knocking and speaking. The suspicious points were far too many.
[Tanaka won't open the door either, and he won't speak to us. That foreigner's the same. We had no choice but to come knock on your door]
[Exactly, exactly, hurry up and open up. At least say something, would you? Is it fun to just stand in the corridor without a word?]
[There's really nothing outside. Everyone's part of this apartment, if there's a problem we can talk it through.]
[Knock, knock, knock—]
The knocking and the voices continued to sound.
No one knew why these people were so persistent. Even though those inside ignored them completely, they still never gave up, continuing to knock on the door.
Takumi remained silent.
Beside him, Kaguya and Maki also showed no intention of approaching the door.
On the contrary, the three of them stepped back a little, tacitly putting some distance between themselves and the door.
[Come on, do you really have to be this wary of us?]
[Why back away like that, come out so we can talk it over.]
[We're all neighbors, what can't be discussed face to face?]
[Knock—knock—knock—]
The knocking seemed to grow louder.
It was as if fists were pounding the door again and again.
The force used wasn't great, but the gradually impatient attitude behind it was beginning to show.
Something was off.
Something definitely wasn't right.
Takumi rubbed his head, feeling his mind go a bit hazy for a moment. He instinctively wanted to respond to the voices outside, yet his body resisted and he kept his mouth tightly shut, remaining utterly silent.
He couldn't say exactly what was wrong.
It was only instinct that kept him silent, saying nothing as he stared toward the door.
[What's wrong about it? It's not like you haven't seen us before.]
Yamamoto Hiroshi's impatient voice rang out, accompanied by the pounding on the door.
Yes—what exactly was wrong here?
Takumi silently pondered in his heart.
[What's wrong with us? What, are you some kind of racist?]
That Black guy spoke next, his Japanese accent as fluent as if it were his native tongue, tinged with faint displeasure.
But still, Takumi just felt he shouldn't act that way.
He continued to feel, even now, that something about this situation had to be wrong.
[Come on, open up already. We really don't have anything wrong with us.]
The dyed-hair woman spoke helplessly in Japanese, her words accompanied by the pounding of fists on the door.
'Why do you keep stressing that there's nothing wrong with you?'
Takumi very much wanted to ask this out loud.
[Because there really is nothing wrong with us.]
'Then why aren't you knocking on the other two doors, and instead only lingering here at ours?'
[We knocked, didn't we? If they won't open up, what can we do?]
'Then I won't open this door either.'
[Why not? Is there really a need to treat your neighbors like this? Open the door, we can talk it over.]
'Talk about what? We don't even know each other. There's nothing I need to say to you.'
[What are you saying? We're all neighbors, aren't we? Neighbors should care for each other. Everyone says so—if you don't believe me, ask the others.]
'I don't want to talk with you. Leave.'
[Don't be like that. We're all living in the same place, we should get along. Open the door.]
'I said, I don't want to talk with you. I won't open the door.'
[Open the door, open the door, open the door.]
'I already said I don't want to talk with you. I don't want to… talk?'
It was as if, in the middle of dozing off, a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.
At that moment, Takumi snapped wide awake.